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PROFILE

Name: Dr. Chris Carmichael, associate professor of biology and head women’s soccer coach at Bob Jones University Education: Bachelor’s degree in zoology from Eastern Illinois University, master’s in biology from Central Michigan University, PhD in biology, animal behavior and herpetology from University of Southern Mississippi Family: Wife, Sharon; daughters Brianna, Brooke, Brielle and Brylee; sons Brenden, Brogan, Brady, Bryson, Brenner and Brodie; another baby due in January; and two grandchildren

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“Personable” isn’t a word often used to describe snakes and gila monsters, but Dr. Chris Carmichael has a unique appreciation for the slithery reptiles.

Carmichael is an associate professor of biology at Bob Jones University. Since childhood, he and identical twin brother Rob have loved snakes and lizards, and both went into snake-centric careers, Rob as a program manager at Wildlife Discovery Center in Lake Forest, Ill.

BJU’s Carmichael oversees a facility that is home to 200 or so pythons, boas, lizards, geckos, gila monsters and other reptiles.

“I don’t know what the attraction is; I’ll be honest,” says Carmichael, chatting in a room flanked by glass cases filled with writhing pythons. “I think once you get to know them, they’re very personable. I think their exotic nature, maybe (is the attraction). Maybe it’s because a lot of people don’t like them. ... I think there’s a very interesting dynamic working with reptiles.”

It started when he and his brother were kids with animal allergies. The doctor recommended getting fish or turtles as pets, and the fascination grew from there.

“What was supposed to be a passing hobby just sort of stuck and became a lifelong passion of mixing conservation and our enjoyment for working with reptiles,” he says.

Carmichael teaches biodiversity, vertebrate zoology, ecology, animal behavior and general biology, and he conducts research with the reptiles in his “mini-zoo.”

Next year, the college is launching a Zoo and Wildlife Biology program, and the pythons and geckos and lizards will offer students a chance for up-close education.

Carmichael, who describes himself as a behavioral ecologist, enjoys learning from the reptiles.

“Any work that I do, I like to try to blend in a conservation component to it,” he says. “And it could be for man’s benefit. For example, working with the gila monsters, which are really experiencing some major population declines because of habitat loss and destruction, we’ve already found some critical proteins that help in diseases such as diabetes. We’re now starting to find that the venom has proteins that can target very specific cancer cells much more effectively than other known regimens of therapy.”

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But the creatures are more than just educational tools for Carmichael. He can discern personality traits that the average person, who might be terrified by the very idea of snakes, wouldn’t notice.

The reptile facility boasts a wide variety of pythons and boas, from the relatively well-known Burmese python to less familiar Savu pythons, Dumeril boas and olive pythons.

“I’ve got some that are just really mellow, and I’ve got others that are really temperamental. Every species has its uniqueness,” says Carmichael of the snakes.

There are also geckos and monitor lizards and lots of other non-snake reptiles. Carmichael’s description of the gila monsters would sound familiar to anyone who’s ever owned a cat.

“I really love my gila monsters right now. They have personality, big time. They’re just a great lizard to work with. They’re very inquisitive. They always want to come out and see what’s going on. They just seem to always want to be in the center of things,” he says.

These days, Carmichael has more on his mind than the population of his reptile habitat. As head women’s soccer coach at BJU, he’s celebrating the team’s recent National Christian College Athletic Association Division II National Championship.

That’s quite an accomplishment for a team that has only been playing for two seasons.

“We were definitely the underdog going in,” says Carmichael, also in his second year at BJU.

Soccer has long been another passion for Carmichael, who played on the team at Eastern Illinois University and also served as head men’s soccer coach and associate professor of biology in his previous position at Malone University in Canton, Ohio.

The BJU team made it to the semifinals but then lost the regional match that would have meant an automatic spot in the final. It was a surprise, then, when the women won an at-large bid to play in the final, and an even bigger surprise when they won.

“We came in as an at-large bid, which puts us already as an underdog because we didn’t win our region, I think mainly because we have a very, very tough region. I think all those things together made it very exciting for the girls to get that win.”